The fate of Gonzaga University baseball’s regular season came down to the final pitch of its final game, as the Zags (26-25, 16-8 WCC) gritted out a 6-4 game three victory over the University of Portland (22-29, 13-11 WCC) on Saturday to maintain their one-game lead over Saint Mary’s in the West Coast Conference standings.
As the dust settled on the final weekend of conference play, GU’s two wins against Portland were just enough to clinch second place in the conference standings – and therefore, a bye into the second round of the WCC championships. With everything still to play for on the final day, the Zags blasted two home runs and relied on a shutdown bullpen to win 6-4 at Portland.
“It was a huge win today to secure that second seed,” GU associate head coach Brandon Harmon said. “Getting that bye is huge and hopefully gives us a clearer path to go win the tourney down in Las Vegas.”
Strong pitching was a theme of both of GU’s wins this weekend, as games one and three against Portland played out similarly. In each contest, the Zags and Pilots wasted no time exchanging blows, with both teams scoring in the first inning and the games remaining close throughout. However, the strong GU pitching tipped both outings in the Zags’ favor, as Kai Francis and Erik Hoffberg impressed on the mound in both games.
“I loved having the opportunity to pitch in those high leverage situations this weekend,” Francis said. “I felt that I did my job, and there’s no better feeling than putting up zeros on their scoreboard.”
After a slow start to the year, Francis (2-1, team-leading 3.28 ERA) has evolved into one of GU’s most trusted relievers. The longtime Zag stalked the mound for 3.0 innings in both games – giving up only one baserunner in a shutout performance in game one while picking up his second win of the season in the regular season finale.
“He’s having a really special senior year,” Harmon said. “I’m about as proud of Kai Francis as a coach can be. He went from having not much of a role to start the year to giving us two huge outings this weekend.”
Meanwhile, Hoffberg’s two ninth inning performances have only solidified his case as the Zags’ No. 1 leverage guy heading into the postseason.
“I can’t say enough about Hoffberg,” Harmon said. “He came in for both wins and slammed the door. Knowing you have him to finish things out is a huge weapon for us.”
Francis and Hoffberg will continue to be key from the GU bullpen heading into the double-elimination conference tournament bracket. Plus, no opponent of GU in this postseason will take great pleasure in seeing Mikey Bell on the Zags’ batting order. The right fielder wreaked havoc on the conference this season, collecting a hit in 29 of the last 30 games for the Zags dating back to March 23.
Bell, the Zags’ leader in batting average (.365), doubles (16), home runs (11) and RBIs (44), was the standout GU batter across both games against Portland, picking up two runs and an RBI on a 2-for-3 performance on Thursday before smacking his 11th home run of the season in Saturday’s first inning to score two.
“Mikey really set the tone in game three with the big first inning home run,” Harmon said. “We had a lot of big contributions this weekend, but Bell and [Ty] Yukumoto really carried us offensively.”
Bell was heavily involved in Friday’s game as well (2-for-5, one run, two RBIs), but a monster nine-run seventh inning from the Pilots proved costly, and the Zags fell 12-5 in the outlier game on the weekend despite being up 4-0 early.
The WCC championships tee off on Wednesday, but the Zags’ No. 2 seed will see them take the diamond on Thursday at 6:05 p.m., facing the highest seed remaining from Wednesday’s first round (No. 3 Saint Mary’s versus No. 6 San Francisco, or No. 4 LMU versus No. 5 Portland).
“I can’t wait to head down to Vegas and see what this team can do,” Francis said. “We are all gas, no brakes.”
All WCC championship games are broadcasted live on ESPN+, and all of GU’s games will have LiveStats published on GoZags.com.
Hoby Miller is a staff writer.